EF1 tornado, Remer to Shovel Lake, Minnesota, August 29, 2013

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

EF1

Date

August 29, 2013

Touchdown

12:28 AM CDT (05:28 UTC)

Lifted

12:55 AM CDT (05:55 UTC)

On the ground

27 minutes

Path length

12.9 miles (20.8 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Cass and Aitkin counties

Touchdown point

47.079, -93.928

Lift-off point

46.973, -93.702

Record number

1308292328-01

Severe thunderstorms over northeast Minnesota brought large hail and damaging winds on August 29th. One thunderstorm produced an EF-1 tornado. The tornado damage path began around 6:28 pm 1.7 miles north-northwest of Remer, MN and ended around 6:55 pm 5.0 miles west-southwest of Hill City, MN. The tornado path was 12.8 miles long and occurred over about 27 minutes. The damage path was through a rural, forested area of northeastern Cass County and northwestern Aitkin County, but it narrowly missed the town of Remer.

The tornado damage path began 1.7 miles north-northwest of Remer, MN. The tornado took a path through a rural, forested area, but narrowly missed the town of Remer. The damage was initially EF-0, but EF-1 damage was observed starting near Birch Lake to the county border between Cass and Aitkin Counties. The damage was mainly to trees.

This was the continuation of EF-1 tornado that passed from Cass County into Aitkin County, crossing the county border about a mile southwest of Cranberry Lake in the northwestern corner of Aitkin County. The damage path was through a rural, forested area doing damage mostly to trees. The damage decreased to EF-0 south of Holy Water Lake. The damage path continued southeast to about 5 miles west-southwest of Hill City, MN.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:53 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Longville (XVG), 30 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Duluth radar (KDLH), 124 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:31 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2013 tornado in MinnesotaEvery tornado in Minnesota since 1950Warnings in force in Minnesota nowThe forecast where you are

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.